A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology

Airbnb Takes on Hotels With Last-Minute Booking (Verge)
Airbnb is experimenting with a new emphasis on short trips and last-minute bookings in San Francisco and Los Angeles and will be introduced in other cities if all goes well. But while the focus on convenience is likely to please users and investors, it’s an interesting choice for a startup that has traditionally touted uniqueness over utility.

Two Years After Pulling Back, Gilt City Gets Back on Track (Street Fight)
Steven Jacobs: Following a retrenchment, Gilt City is growing again. Street Fight caught up with Steven Schneider, the president and general manager at the local shopping site, to talk about the evolution of local commerce, the business of curation, and the changing relationship between ecommerce and brick-and-mortar marketplaces for retailers.

Square Turns the Lowly Receipt Into a Giant Opportunity (Wired)
Square is unveiling a new feature for its digital receipts that, in and of itself, doesn’t radically change how we interact with the places where we shop. But it points us in this direction. Now, along with all the standard information about your purchase, merchants also have something else they can slip right in the receipt: a request for feedback.

Finding the Right Point of Contact At: An Agency (Street Fight)
Breaking into the big-time and selling to a national brand usually involves going through an agency. However, locating the best point of contact at a media planning and buying agency with hundreds—if not thousands—of employees is a process that requires experience, skill, and quite a bit of patience. Here are five strategies for finding the right person to pitch in an agency setting.

Let’s Face Facts: Mobile Wallets Are Doomed (ReadWrite)
Dan Rowkinski: For entrepreneurs, the concept of a mobile wallet seems so logical that the payments industry looks like it’s ripe for disruption. The problem comes when this logical entrepreneurial spirit merges with an industry segment that is classically illogical.

How Mobile Devices are Creating Hyperlocal Opportunities (Poynter)
EveryBlock’s recent resurrection raises hopes that digital media efforts can help stoke interest in hyperlocal news. Focusing tightly on Chicago neighborhoods, EveryBlock connects users to information about crime, civic developments and calendar events – down to the block level – and brings neighbors together to talk with each other virtually.

Why Uber And Airbnb Might Be In Big Trouble (Forbes)
Jeff Bercovici: Companies like Airbnb, Uber and Lyft have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital in the belief that the money they spend now will buy them lasting competitive advantages for years to come. But what if all those nine-figure war chests are really millstones that will only weigh them down as newer, nimbler entrants swim circles around them?

Automakers Ramping Up Geo-Located Ads (MediaPost)
If any retail category should go heavy on geo-fenced mobile ads it is the auto category. A new report from Verve Mobile finds suggests auto retailers are quickly increasing their commitment to geo-fencing. The firm says 17% of auto category spend across national, regional and individual dealer is on location-powered ads.